KNIGHT
by HermiaSD
Summary: Years ago, the project to create the ultimate weapon was a failure, and the experiment was abandoned. But the madman is determined to continue to play with his toys long after his work is shut down... A Princess Tutu AU


There was a disturbingly bright light blaring above him, almost painful and blinding. Some shadows, voices, nameless people that seemed to know much more about him than he ever did. He couldn't move. He didn't _want_ to move. And he felt pain, but at the same time, he didn't. Numbness and searing, aching emptiness, unaware and unsure of everything, and yet, so acutely sensitive to his surroundings.

It made absolutely no sense.

"_Pulse is stable."_

The anonymous shadows shifted about above him.

"_Brain activity is surging dramatically."_

He was so tired… Let him rest. Please. Just let his eyes close.

The sounds of…clapping? _"Congratulations, sir."_

"_Project K.N.I.G.H.T. is a success."_

Glassy, green eyes squinted up against the light shining down on him. What was happening? Why couldn't he move? Who are these people?

_Who am I?_

Eyes focused. Tubes. The whirring of machines. What was all of this? He wanted to fight back. He wanted answers. He wanted…to sleep. Just sleep it all away and wake up and realize he's back home with his mother and father, safe and sound…

A dark figure, shadowed by the light above, leaned over him. A chuckle. Strange, lunatic, swirling brown eyes. A grin.

The first thing he felt other than that aching nothing was a chill up his spine.

"_Good morning, Lohengrin."_

Lohengrin?

Sleep. Just sleep. He told himself to close his eyes and shut out the rest of the world. Close his eyes and hope to whatever higher power that existed that he would wake up and this would all be a nightmare. And yet, he simply knew that this wasn't a dream. That this was all painfully, torturously real. He just wanted to get _away_…

"_S-Sir…Something's happening…!"_

Let him go.

"_Heart rate is increasing--!"_

"_Pull the plug--!"_

Voices, panic, that grin…

What had they _done_ to him?

And in that instant, Lohengrin didn't want to sleep. He didn't want to wake up anymore. He knew that he wouldn't anyway. His parents were dead, weren't they? He killed them himself. That was the only memory he had. Blood, screams… He had his mother's eyes.

"_The weapon--!"_

Weapon? So…that's…

He would destroy them all And then he would destroy _himself _before he could destroy anything else.

-

Ahiru balanced a large paper bag full of muffins in one arm, a reusable tote full of plastic packages of assorted berries from the market in the other, and a backpack stuffed with three gigantic textbooks lugged over her shoulders on the way up to her dorm room. One of these days, she really had to get a car instead of using a bicycle all the time. A license would have to come first though if she could ever pass that driving test.

She staggered up the stairs, grumbling to herself, a pout forming on her lips. A dorm room on the first floor would be awfully nice, too. The first few times she had climbed the stairway of the dormitory, she tripped and tumbled all the way back down, leading to several bruises and an unbelievable amount of shame. Laughter and pain. That was all she could remember from the experience. And a bit of painful "comforting" from Pique and Lilie.

Maybe she would've hid in her dorm room for the rest of the semester had it not been for her roommate.

Rue never talked to her. Ever. And as someone who enjoyed making friends whenever she could, it was difficult to live in such close quarters with someone who was so cold. It wasn't as if Ahiru disliked her, either. In fact, Rue was one of the most accomplished women on the prestigious Kinkan University. Majoring in performing arts, striking scarlet eyes, full dark hair, very beautiful…Rumor had it that she was even the daughter of the military leader, General Ray. Ahiru could only admire her greatly, and wish to be as mature and intelligent as Rue was. And to be friends with her. Or _something_.

Finally! The freckled redhead slumped against the wall next to the door, and she put down the tote bag onto the floor to fumble for the key in her pocket. Home, sweet ho--

That was when Rue opened the door, carrying a laptop bag over her shoulder and staring at her with a raised eyebrow. Ahiru comically shifted the paper bag in her arms, giving Rue a wide, rather forced, embarrassed grin.

Oh boy. "Err…hey!" she exclaimed with her childish, quack-like voice.

Rue's eyebrow raised even further. "…Hm." She fluidly and gracefully sidestepped to let Ahiru in, and the shorter girl gladly took the invitation, almost scrambling inside and placing the paper bag and tote onto her bed on her side of the small room. Immediately, she shoved her heavy backpack down with a _bang_ on the floor, and sighed.

"Thanks for getting the door! Umm, I brought muffins! Want any?"

"…No, I'm fine. I have to get to the library."

"Ah--o-oh, okay, I--!" But before Ahiru could finish, Rue had left the room entirely, closing the door behind her. Yes, Rue was very cold indeed. Heaving another sigh--she'd been doing that quite a bit lately--she fell back onto her bed next to her two bags, flopping down onto her comforter. What a day. Rolling onto her side, she glanced at her small, wooden desk, eyes landing on the white frame with the photo sitting behind the glass. It was an image of a smiling couple, with a redheaded woman and a blue-eyed man holding one another in front of a flowery arch. Their wedding day.

Ahiru's blue eyes glittered and her smile softened. She always felt so much better after looking at their picture. Lifting her hand to her lips, she kissed her fingertips and placed it upon the cool surface of the glass cover. "Hi Mom. Hi Dad. Miss you like always!"

Missing them every moment of her life for the past four years, ever since the first bombing of her hometown when she was just fourteen years old. Maybe she shouldn't have gone to spend the summer in Pique's house in another state. Maybe she should've found a way to take them both with her where it was safe…

She bit her lip. Speaking of the bombing, she had to get that poster done for the demonstration tomorrow. Ahiru really had to stop procrastinating on everything. And she didn't even want to _think _about all the homework she had to do. But first, the anti-war effort! That was far more important. Or at least it was to her. It wasn't as if she had any sort of understanding of the politics behind it; she barely understood politics in general. But how could any sort of conflict that resulted in nothing but senseless bloodshed do any good at all? Perhaps it was a naïve point of view, and perhaps she didn't understand every aspect of it, but Ahiru stood by it no matter what.

Scooting forward a bit on her stomach, she dipped down, long wavy salmon hair falling over to pool about on the carpet as she shifted upside-down for her poster under the bed. "Ooof…where are you, dumb-dumb…thing--ah!" Shoving boxes of shoes and random, disorganized books and binders about, she found the corner of the rather crinkled poster, and yanked at it.

…Only to tear a third of the poster right off.

There was a long moment of silence in which she simply stared at the shredded poster piece in her hand, the bottom half of the "-ar" in "war" in red marker the only things viewable. And she chuckled at herself. Figures. Oh well. At least she'd be able to make a better one now, right? What more could she do than think positive?

It was then that she heard the familiar tune of her ringtone. _Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy _from _The Nutcracker_. One of her favorite ballets. She took a moment to hum along, and then blinked. Where was her phone anyway?

"Oh, poop!" Rolling over once more, she reached over to lug her heavy backpack onto the bed with a grunt of exertion, fumbling to unzip the front pocket. "Where are you, you little--mmnn!" Seconds later, the ringtone ceased, and a beeping noise was audible. Missed call. Drat. Finally, she closed her hand over her phone and flipped it open, glancing down at the screen and puffing out to blow the bangs from her eyes.

…And she instantly called him back. She always did feel bad for missing calls. Especially from Samuel.

After a few moments, she sighed. She had to leave a message. They always seemed to miss each other when they called, even when he had just called her a mere instant ago. "Um, hi, Sam! It's me. I was just calling back since…yeah, you called me! And…y-yeah. Okay. So! Call me back! And I'll definitely answer this time! Okay! Bye!"

She closed her phone, placed it on her desk beside the photo of her parents, and buried her face in her comforter. Things were weird with Sam lately. They were never the most affectionate couple in the world, but it was never this awkward before. It was hard to just talk to him sometimes, and aside from his occasional calls, he made no effort to see her outside of class.

Well! Now wasn't the time to dwell on it! She had a poster to make, after all! And the demonstration was tomorrow!

She pulled a chocolate-chip muffin out of the paper bag and got ready for work.

-

Rue always did hate it when she heard the whispers in the school buildings. They were always about her.

She was never one to be made fun of; there was just something about her air and manner of walking that commanded respect and admiration, and she was very much aware of it. And yet, people whispered about her all the same. How successful of a lawyer she'd be when she graduated. How wonderfully she danced in the University's dance studio. How beautiful and striking she was. Almost always positive comments, unless they were ones of envy or jealousy. Rarely ever did she encounter a disapproving glance from peers and professors alike.

Most certainly her father's daughter. Ugh.

Her scarlet eyes narrowed as she took her place in the library, settling at a circular table with her laptop propped open in front of her. All ready, she could feel the eyes burning into the back of her head, hear the murmurs of how women wished they could be her and of how the men wished they could be _with _her.

"Hello, Rue."

Speak of the devil.

Autor pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and sat a seat away from her. "Getting started early, I see. The sensible decision as always."

"Hm." She eyed him for a moment, before turning back to her screen.

"Will you be joining in on the anti-war demonstration tomorrow?

Her muscles tensed, and she proudly looked away. "No. I have no opinion on the matter."

Anything to separate herself from her father would be a welcome decision. The bastard succeeded in driving away her mother. Why would he care now that his daughter decided to cut all ties with him? She was most certainly better off, wasn't she? She didn't _care_ if other girls grew up with fatherly affection. It had no meaning to her.

"None at all?" Autor seemed genuinely surprised at this, and Rue wasn't at all shocked at that. The purple-haired young man before her always seemed to have an opinion about everything, including her beauty, but that was beside the point. "I…I see."

Proceeding to ignore him, her eyes glanced down at her keyboard, and she began to type.

-

There was a large crowd of students at the demonstration, much to Ahiru's extreme surprise and excitement. Seemed as if the turn-out was a success as they all stood at the entrance of the Kinkan University Library. And it was also far more organized that she first expected, with food stands and buttons and bumper sticks for sale and people with megaphones and showing their support for their cause…

It gave Ahiru a sense of pride in her position. Something to believe in. She was sure her parents would be proud of her. But where was Sam? He promised that he would be there, too. And she even made a poster for him to use…

Lowering her arms and letting the posters hang uselessly at her sides, she made her way over to the nearest soda and donut table. Pique was working there, but Lilie was unsurprisingly absent from this event--she was under the impression that war was a beautiful thing and that fighting and bloodshed was an understandable loss. It was times like these that made Ahiru wonder why she was such good friends with the blonde.

The redhead forced out a smile toward her pink-haired friend, and Pique smiled back, immediately holding out an orange soda can toward her. "Still not here yet?"

"No. He's…He's probably really busy! I mean, I have homework I still hafta do, and exams are coming up."

Pique frowned, nibbling on her chocolate donut. "Then he's been pretty busy for the past two months." And she did have a point. Sam wasn't spending that much time with Ahiru at all lately, and it definitely wasn't fair. Ahiru might not have been the smartest girl in the Academy--in fact, her professors sometimes wondered how she was able to get accepted in the first place--but she wasn't blind enough to not notice Sam's lack of attention.

"Yeah, you're right." She winced when she pulled the metal tab from the top of the can, a hissing sound erupting from the soda. That always did hurt her fingers… "I know I should talk to him. He can't just keep ignoring me like this…I just wish I didn't like him so mu--GYAH!"

Something--some_one_, whatever--shoved into her back, sending her stumbling forward, orange soda spilling all over her _white blouse_ and her posters that she had spent so much time and effort on for herself and Sam and--!

"Watch it, moron."

She froze, and she could hear Pique's breath catch in her throat. Wait a minute. Ahiru didn't do anything! This anonymous jerk was the one who bumped into her, ruining her shirt and anti-war messages, and he was calling _her_ an idiot?! Whirling around to face the culprit and give him a piece of her mind, her blue eyes blazed and face twisted into a comical scowl. "Look who's talking, bub! You're the one who--!"

The redhead froze.

He looked…threatening. Menacing. Incredibly tall. Green eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, a whole foot taller than she was, scowling her down with dark hair falling in front of the tanned skin of his face and pulled back into a low ponytail.

Whoever this guy was, he looked about ready to beat her up or something.

But pride would not let her back down. He wasn't _that_ big and scary. She gulped, keeping her expression as firm as possible--not much of a threatening look, but it was the most she could do. "…_You're_ the one who shoved into--w-wha--?!"

Before she could even finish, he simply turned and walked away, as if she was nothing more than a bug on the ground. "H-Hey! Come back here and apologize for--!"

"He's kinda cute."

Blue eyes widened in disbelief as she turned back to Pique, who stared after his back with open interest.

The world was all ready against her. Figures that her best friend would join in, too.

What Ahiru hadn't noticed while she argued determinedly with her obviously blind-as-a-bat friend on what makes a young man attractive, was the way the retreating dark-haired figure flinched in pain, lifting his left hand to rest on his right shoulder, rubbing his chest all the way down to his navel as if trying to sooth a burn.

-

"Sir."

The soft, sing-song tone of the pale female in the lab coat reverberated through the room, just barely audible above the hum of the machinery and the beeping of the heart monitor. In the darkness, a grin stretched across an old, wrinkled face.

"Yeeeees?"

"Project P.R.I.N.C.E., Siegfried, is awake."

And Drosselmeyer laughed. Surely, this experiment wouldn't be a failure. He would show the world that he could create the perfect weapon.

-


End file.
